Clinton Ok'd Extension Of Search

More tears in Camelot

He Cited `Enormous Losses' Kennedy Family Has Had

July 22, 1999|By Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - On the day divers located the bodies of John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife and sister-in-law, President Clinton said he personally authorized extending the search effort beyond what would be done for other Americans because the Kennedy family played a special role in American life and deserved special attention.

Long close to the Kennedy family, Clinton said Wednesday he agreed to extend the search effort Sunday when told the Coast Guard was confident it could recover Kennedy's plane and body if given more time.

``Because of the role of the Kennedy family in our national lives and because of the enormous losses that they have sustained in our lifetimes, I thought it was appropriate to give them a few more days,'' Clinton said in response to a question about the search at a White House news conference.

``If anyone believes that was wrong, the Coast Guard is not at fault, I am,'' Clinton added.

Clinton's decision came when it was clear that Kennedy, his wife and her sister were dead and the search-and-rescue effort became a search-and-recovery operation.

Clinton said he spoke Monday with Coast Guard Rear Adm. Richard Larrabee ``at a time when the operation might normally have ceased.'' Clinton said it was Larrabee who suggested spending more time on the search, ``because of the circumstances here and because of who's involved.''

Though Clinton did not mention it, there also was concern in the government that if it did not recover Kennedy's body and the airplane wreckage, scavengers or souvenir hunters would. The same improvements in technology used by the Coast Guard and Navy also are available to private concerns such as the one that discovered the Titanic.

Given the obsession and conspiracy theories that still surround the assassination of Kennedy's father, a missing plane and missing body might have fueled rampant speculation and theories.

Also, airborne television cameras beaming pictures of the search around the world have raised expectations and put enormous pressure on the searchers to succeed.

In the first two days after the young Kennedy's plane disappeared off Martha's Vineyard, the search was launched with Coast Guard cutters, Coast Guard planes, Air Force planes, and a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ship with a special sonar particularly helpful in locating objects on the ocean floor.

``The rescue and recovery efforts that were undertaken were consistent with what would have been done in any other case,'' Clinton said of the first two days.

Through the weekend, the Coast Guard believed it was still possible that Kennedy and the two women could have survived up to 48 hours after the crash in the 68-degree waters. After that time, the chances were remote, and the Coast Guard halted its rescue efforts.

``When it becomes clear that chances for survival are greatly diminished, we don't generally have any role in the recovery,'' said Commander Mike Lapinski, a Coast Guard spokesman in Washington.

In routine plane crashes over water, the government leaves the wreckage. When there is recovery, it is normally by private marine salvage firms, paid by the insurance company that covered the plane, by family, or by salvage operators.

``A lot of planes go down and stay on the bottom of the ocean floor forever because of the expense or lack of interest,'' Lapinski said.

But in this case, the federal government remained intensely involved in the search and recovery of Kennedy's private plane.

``This was a unique operation, but it was not unprecedented,'' Lapinski said.

For example, the Coast Guard and other federal agencies were involved in the painstaking recovery effort of TWA Flight 800, the Boeing 747 that plunged into the sea off the south shore of Long Island three years ago.

TWA did not want to spend the money to retrieve the plane, but the Federal Bureau of Investigation and National Transportation Safety Board decided that there was a compelling interest in finding the plane and determining the cause of the accident. So the federal government picked up the tab.